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My Web3 Journey: Day 100 of #100daysofWeb3

#web3 #100daysofcode #beginners #blockchain
My Web3 Journey: Day 100 of #100daysofWeb3
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It's day 100. Oh dear, where do I even start?

Honestly, I would have never imagined I'd be getting into the web3/crypto space at the beginning of 2021 (or at any point in my career). But here we are, 100 days into the web3 challenge that completely got me hooked.

Now, this is my story. I'm by no means an advisor of any sort, and I failed terribly on the way. Nevertheless, I want to share my journey, focusing on what I learned and takeaways.

More down the rabbit hole web3

If you follow me on Twitter or read my articles, you already know that I am pretty much overly attached to web3 at this point.

Where it all started

How I got to web3 is not magical, it's not the promises or community. These are why I'm still here, but I got in as an investor (sounds way cooler than just saying money😀). Then I learned about the technology and community. I was fascinated.

The challenge: #100daysofCode / #100daysofweb3

I started the challenge to learn and code every day using web3 technologies. I had already been learning about web3 for some time, and being a developer, I wanted to understand the technology stack and build myself.

If you haven't read the first half of my journey, I'd highly recommend you to jump to this post. It covers how I got into the web3 world in detail and what I did throughout the first 50 days of the challenge.

Important to mention, it wasn't purely a coding journey for me. I became very interested in technical writing (still surprised that I have such a passion for writing) and started to create content about web3. You can find my posts here.

Worth mentioning is that I did not code or write 100 days straight. I gave breaks, and I'd highly recommend taking breaks on the way because it gets very overwhelming pretty fast.

Why I'm still excited about web3

After the first 50 days, I continued to learn about the web3 landscape. I was learning new technologies every day. This part is the most interesting because these technologies made me realize how siloed I'd become. The challenges and focuses were a lot different than what I was used to being in the web2 world.

This is one of the main reasons I am thrilled to be in the web3 space; I'm always learning and pushing myself. Of course, there are complex problems in the web2 world, but no denying that web2 has invisible boundaries on what you can do and the level of experiments, especially in large cooperations.

On a related note, I wrote a blog post about why I'm excited about web3 in detail; you can check it out here.

Building

In the first 50 days, I created basic smart contracts and learned solidity. The second half looks a lot different. I learned more about the technology stack and tried out protocols to extend my app's functionality; now, my contracts had more going on. I used technologies such as Chainlink, The Graph, Arweave, Ceramic Networks and many more.

Here's a post by Nader covering the web3 tech stack; it's the most comprehensive guide I've come across on this topic. I've bookmarked this post and frequently go back it to because 100 days is not enough.

I've added the resources I used below; there are lots!

The community

Another part that I wasn't expecting was the community aspect. I wasn't part of the web3 or tech Twitter community before starting or, to be honest, any internet community — and didn't plan to be. Now I can't iterate how important the communities, web3 Twitter and Developer DAO, have become.

It can be overwhelming in the web3 world because there are so many new things to learn, the crypto space has a very negative narrative in the outside world, and it's in the experimental stages with no clear guidelines or regulations.

These don't seem like that big of a challenge when you're part of the community. In my case, I was doubting myself and couldn't make bold decisions but seeing so many people around me being excited and creating cool projects made me want to continue my journey. Can testify that social proof is a very powerful influence.

I've come to realize that the web3 community is very small at the moment. Many people tell me that I'm also early (which I now agree with); getting in early on is really beneficial because you can connect with people you take as an example.

To highlight the effect of internet communities, I want to take a moment to mention Constitution DAO. I never thought I'd ever want to buy the US constitution. But somehow, I contributed to doing so and followed the auction with such huge excitement. Basically, a DAO (decentralized autonomous organization) was formed to buy the US Constitution at Sotheby's. The DAO raised over 40 Million Dollars in less than a week! The DAO didn't end buying the constitution, but nevertheless it showed me that DAO's are a thing and can bring together many people to coordinate and work together for a common goal.

The downside

Now I don't appreciate hyped articles and don't want this one to be like that. No space is perfect, and web3 has its flaws. I mentioned the downside of the space in both my previous article and the 50 days article; you can find detailed overviews in those posts. With that, let me also add a short recap here:

  1. No regulations: the space is experimental and at its infancy stages. There's no regulations and/or guidelines to protect users or creators.
  2. Too much going on: it can be hard even to start because there are too many new technologies to learn. From 100 days ago, it seems that there is way more beginner content; I have listed them below.
  3. Monetary Incentives: people have financial incentives. Make sure to understand the motivations of the people and the platforms. Is it for the money or the tech?
  4. The Language: there are too many abbreviations and new terms. Even "web3" itself was a term I learned after getting into the web3/crypto world. Disclaimer: no one calls web2, web2 in that world.

Web3 has many sceptics. I definitely think new ideas should be challenged. However, I'm not a big fan aggressive nature of comments in the space.

My mistakes & takeaways

I am learning, teaching and having fun. Again this is my story, and here are some takeaways from my #100daysofCode/#100daysofweb3 challenge:

  1. Create and build: create content, build apps, write, read, basically do anything you're interested in. Everyone is new here, don't wait until you learn about everything because no one can know everything! It took me a lot of time to become a "doer", but it has been one of the decisions. It will also bring you many opportunities. I didn't apply for a single job and got more offers than I would ever imagine. No one reached out from my LinkedIn profile; they didn't even know my last name or background. But, I was creating exciting content.
  2. Your content engine is key: it's all about the content you consume. The podcast, the tutorials, articles all make up what you learn and produce. Make sure to find the content that you enjoy the most and can get the most out of. There were days where I was on Twitter, just browsing for way too long to find some interesting content. Now I have a clear content engine, which guides me to build my next app or create my next post. It's not a tweet that I may come across on Twitter after realizing I spent hours reading about a random argument on Twitter.
  3. Take breaks: I was overwhelmed. I was in front of my pc for a few days, just staring and not having any motivation. It's not sustainable to cancel all your activities and lock yourself in your room. That's what I was doing. Now I have realized that those events and conversations inspire me and give me ideas and new perspectives. You can go out for a run, meet your friends or read a sci-fi book; doing things outside of web3 will not put you behind. In the country, it'll make you relax and motivate you.
  4. Prioritize: The web3 space moves quickly. Every day there is something new. You don't need to keep up with every news or know every technology in detail. There were days where I tried to keep up with everything going on and other days where I felt that I knew nothing looking at the pile of technologies I hadn't even heard of. One of the essential things is prioritizing and focusing on a single area. Once I started to do that, I became more confident that I was making progress and knew what to do.
  5. Don't forget to document your progress: I wasn't as structured as I wanted to be, the projects were more organized but my learnings were all over the place (notion, word, notes etc.). I'd suggest taking a structured approach because I found myself spending a lot of time finding and reviewing my notes.

Would I recommend starting the challenge?

It wasn't an easy challenge, but the answer is a definite YES!

Modify the challenge to suit your style best. For example, I gave breaks, and I didn't post on Twitter every day. If you like to share every day, that's perfectly fine, but it put extra pressure on me. Additionally, my challenge was not only to build and ship products but it was in between building projects, creating content and learning about web3.

It also doesn't matter what level you are on with coding or web3; this is for personal development. It's really about what you achieve over a specific time, not how you compare to others.

I learned a lot and feel very proud of the outcome; with that, there's so much more to learn!

How to start in the web3 world?

Most of my recommendations from day50 have not changed; I did expand on the content.

  1. Start by doing
    I cannot iterate how important it is to understand what you can do in the web3 world before getting in. Do anything related to crypto but DO it. Don't just listen to a podcast or read a blog post.

    • Setup your own wallet, exchange some tokens, stake some assets, get an ens name etc.
    • Check out RabbitHole, an educational platform focusing on teaching how to use web3 applications.

  2. Read, research, repeat

  3. Building

    • Buildspace: Learn about web3 by creating projects, they continue to expand and add new projects! They now have Solana and Avalanche projects.
    • Nader Dabit: make sure to follow Nader's youtube. He has live streams deep-diving into the technology and the code with many people.
    • Scaffold-Eth: It's a tool by Austin Griffith to build decentralized applications. There are some quests here that you can follow along.
    • UseWeb3 Tutorials: a curated list of many tutorials and guides
    • Web3 university: a library of Web3 educational resources
    • Web3 Twitter; here are some of my favorite builders and communities in the space.

  4. Get Involved
    There are so many different areas you can get involved in. Join a DAO, be active on Twitter, reach out to people. It's not just smart contract experts or developers that can get involved, but there are different areas from marketing, writing, designing etc.

  • Find and learn about DAO's on DAO Central
  • Come and join Developer DAO. We're a community of web3 enthusiasts learning and building in the space.

If you love what you do and having fun, there are many employment opportunities:

  • Check out this article by Kacie; it's a great overview of what opportunities and how to prepare
  • UseWeb3 Job Board
  • Follow the projects and people on Twitter, create a project and reach out to the teams! In the web3 world, Twitter is the new Linkedin. Here's a thread to see who is hiring right now!

So what's next for me? Well, I'm not going anywhere! You'll be hearing more of my adventures in web3 👩‍💻

Thank you for reading! If you have any questions or comments, drop them below or reach out to me from Twitter!

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